


Promise

by jujubiest



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Ficlet, M/M, The Impala (Supernatural)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-12
Updated: 2020-12-12
Packaged: 2021-03-10 21:41:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,082
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28024143
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jujubiest/pseuds/jujubiest
Summary: Dean and Cas go on a hunt, things don't quite go as planned.
Relationships: Castiel/Dean Winchester
Comments: 2
Kudos: 32





	Promise

**Author's Note:**

> Just a short ficlet inspired by this tumblr post: https://icannotreadcursive.tumblr.com/post/637275092375732224/unamedwatcher-hedgiwithapen-very-good-trope
> 
> I imagine this as being set after 15x18, but there aren't any spoilers exactly. Nothing beyond 15x19 is acknowledged.

"I can take care of myself Dean."

"I know you can, just...look, just humor me, okay?" He looks down at his hands in his lap. "I just got you back," he says softly, as close as he will ever get to confessing how scared he is of losing the angel--no, the man, now--beside him.

Cas's annoyed expression softens, and he reaches out to squeeze one of those work-rough hands. Dean is never going to be the kind of person who just pours his heart out in words, but that's okay. That's not the person he fell in love with, and he learned a long time ago how to communicate in the languages Dean knows.

As he does now, when he leans across the seat and presses a kiss to Dean's temple.

"Okay," he relents. I'll stay in the car. I promise."

Dean sends him a look that is all gratitude mingled with love, and Cas hears everything he doesn't say, as clearly as if he still had the ability to look directly into his mind. This is all still new. Not just them, but...doing things together, listening to each other. Being on the same page. If Cas says 'I promise,' Dean knows he can take him at his word.

Dean leaves him in the car with the keys in the ignition and the doors locked, promising to be back in five minutes. As soon as he's gone, Cas feels his stomach clench with worry. It's ridiculous, as silly as Dean wanting him to stay in the car. It's as straightforward a case as they come, a basic salt-and-burn, and he's just scoping out the house so they can come back later and do the real work.

Except it isn't that straightforward, and Dean doesn't come back in five minutes. Cas takes a deep breath and tells himself to be patient, but by the seven-minute mark he's itching to go running in after him.

At the eight minute mark, he hears a crash from inside the house, and hears Dean give a choked-off cry.

He doesn't think. He just reacts.

Dean sneaks around the corner of the house, checking over his shoulder for looky-loos. The nearest house is barely visible through the trees, and no one should be home here, but it's better safe than sorry.

Seeing no one, he slips around the corner of the house and toward the back. It's a big back yard, with a neglected garden plot and rusting swingset in the back. There's a back porch as well, and two doors leading into the house itself.

One of those doors is open. Dean pauses, considers. He should really go back, get Cas, follow the plan. But the house is supposed to be locked up tight, and he figures it can't hurt to check it out before he turns back.

He creeps in closer and slides a knife out of his belt, senses on high alert. Something about this doesn't feel quite right.

As ever, Dean's instincts are impecable. His choices, on the other hand...

He thought it was just a run-of-the-mill haunting. All signs pointed that way. By the time he realizes how wrong he was, the thing's got him by the throat and knocked him through one of the glass doors. His hands scrabble at its claws around his neck, but he already knows it's useless. His knife went flying when the thing tackled him, and it's holding too tight for his fingers to get any purchase. His vision is already going dark around the edges. Cas, he thinks, hoping his stupidity won't lead Cas into this trap as well.

A second later, there's a thundering crash, and something huge and black   
ploughs right through one of the house's walls and into the thing that has   
Dean by the throat. It goes flying in one direction and Dean goes in the   
other. He sits up, wide-eyed and dazed, trying to make sense of his rescue.

It's the Impala, hanging half-in, half-out of the front wall of the house, which has been reduced to matchsticks around her sleek black form. Dean squints against her headlights and manages to make out Cas behind the wheel, white-knuckled and looking shell-shocked.

Dean scrambles to his feet, wincing as he feels every single place his body has connected with hard ground or sharp glass. He's going to be sore for weeks, but he doesn't care. There's a helium balloon in his chest at the sight of Cas in his driver's seat, scruffy and human and yet still coming to Dean's rescue.

He limps to the passenger's side door as fast as he can and throws himself into the seat beside Cas.

"Get us out of here!" He says. Whatever that thing is, he doubts a car is going to stop it for long. They need to regroup and figure out what it is and how to handle it, and they also need to be long gone before someone thinks to call the cops.

Cas doesn't answer except to do exactly as Dean asks. He reverses out of the house's ruined innards, and Dean tries not to wince at the sound of jagged wood scraping along the sides of his baby. The car's been through worse, and it can be fixed. He, on the other hand.

He's definitely gonna need the first aid kit when they get back to the motel.

They're halfway there before it occurs to him what Cas actually did, and he starts laughing so hard that Cas looks over at him, worried.

"Dean?"

Dean shakes his head, still laughing too hard to speak. Cas glares at him, but that just makes him laugh harder.

When he finally manages to regain his calm, he looks fondly at Cas's profile, half-lit and still glowering.

"Sorry, man," he says breathlessly. "I just...you really keep your promises, huh."

Cas glances over at him, confused and still slightly annoyed.

"What do you mean?" He says, averting his eyes back to the road.

Dean reaches over and brushes his hand over the scruffy beard Cas has started to grow ever since he became human. It's an affectionate, playful gesture that's becoming a habit of his. Cas leans--ever so slightly--into it, but his brow is still furrowed.

"What?" He says. "I promised you I'd stay in the car. So I stayed in the car."

That sets Dean off again. He laughs the rest of the way to the motel.


End file.
